SANTA FE SPRINGS – A La Mirada man lost his arm but was expected to survive after apparently being struck by a freight train early Wednesday, officials said.

Authorities received 9-1-1 calls reporting the incident about 3:50 a.m. near Rosecrans and Marquardt avenues, Whittier police said in a written statement.

The callers reported, “a man bleeding severely and missing an arm,” according to the statement. “When officers arrived, the victim fled the location for unknown reasons and was detained.”

Officials sent the badly injured man to a trauma center, along with his missing arm, Whittier police Lt. Randy Inman said. It was not immediately clear if surgeons would be able to re-attach it.

A train believed to have been involved was located and stopped shortly after the incident in Vernon, Inman said. It was examined before being allowed to continue on its way.

Investigators continued looking in to how the man, who is in his late-20s, ended up on the tracks and apparently in the path of a train.

“A full investigation is pending, but it appears the La Mirada resident was at a bar in Montebello earlier in the evening and was involved in a fight,” the police statement said. “He was sent to a local hospital for those injuries and fled from the hospital. It is unknown how he got to Santa Fe Springs.”

The incident is being investigated by the Whittier Police Department’s Traffic Bureau.

The train believed to be involved in the incident was being operated by BNSF Railway, BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said. It was heading from Chicago to Long Beach.

The conductor did not report seeing anything on the tracks, and didn’t immediately realized anyone had been struck, she said.

Brian Day has covered crime and breaking news for the Southern California News Group since 2007. He’s a graduate of California State University, Fullerton and Cerritos College in Norwalk. He loves dogs and has a pet German shepherd, which in turn, has a pet cat. Brian is a local news junkie, a licensed drone pilot and a part-time science geek with an unfortunate predilection for puns.